LOL!
Posted on 02/11/2005 10:55:36 AM PST by Jim Robinson
The shot heard around the Internet has been fired on FreeRepublic.com The owner Jim Robinson and his moderators have launched a sniper style purge against members that disagree with the President’s ‘guest worker’ amnesty or support more control of illegal immigration. Free Republic is an amazing tool for those looking for a good debate and news from around the country.
The problem for the administration of the site is that their creation is allowing the participants to learn that the Bush immigration record and plans are shockingly out of line with the views of most conservatives. The management’s answer to this conflict between the majority of conservatives and the influence of the White House on their Web site has become electronic executions and censorship.
Members and readers of Free Republic would be surprised to know that many members of their community have fallen silent on the discussions about illegal immigration lately because free speech is an illusion on FR.com. They are silent because they have been banned from the Web site without warning, cause, or explanation in most cases. For weeks the moderators have been suspending and banning new members that chimed in quickly on the immigration debates.
Now this trend has broadened as the first groups of long-term users were suspended or banned this past week. Although Robinson and his staff removed many members of the Free Republic community in the first few days of the purge, those that religiously support President Bush’s immigration plan, open borders and approve of public benefits for illegal aliens remain on the forum. Those that were banned were the members that wanted more done to control illegal immigration and a strict observance to the President’s Oath of Office.
"It is a call to be vigilant -- to know that your government is on high alert, and to add your eyes and ears to our efforts to find and stop those who want to do us harm." - President George W. Bush, November 2001
It was President Bush himself who, after the 9/11 attacks, asked all Americans to be "vigilant" and aware and to watch for and report suspicious activity to the proper authority. This is what the Minuteman Project, from what I understand, plans to do. They're going to be vigilant, watch some areas around the border, and report suspicious activity. They're also going to make a political point about our lack of border security while they're doing it - a FReep, as it were. They're not hunting illegals, they don't plan to apprehend illegals, they're just doing what the President asked all of us to do in response to the 9/11 attacks and they're doing it where there's more suspicious activity than you can imagine.
Is it me, or are those crickets really loud following this post?
Although I am fairly new to FR, I love it. Just a great source of information, debate, entertainment. You are providing a tremendous service to the individual members and, I think, to our nation as a whole. I support you completely in the positions that you have stated.
Nor I.
Ah! Thanks for the clarification.
When do you think Joe was banned and when did you say you were out of town.
That statement seems as though you are anti anti illegal immigration.
hahaha! :^D
I am.
LOL!
F16 tends to make accusations he can't back up with a single fact.......
The "anti-illegal movement", and "pro-Border Enforcement" movements will NEVER lose steam at Free Republic. Why should it?
Respectively, they are intrinsically linked to the culture, language, AND independent sovereignty of America as foreseen by the Founding Fathers.
I don't know why AILPAC got banned (nor sabertooth, or any of the other posters mentioned.) I wasn't on the thread where it finally happened. Maybe they posted something from proscribed sites, or went non-linear on someone. Whatever the reason, I defer to the decision of the admin.
I've had some pretty heated exchanges with almost all of the "FROBLs" on FR at one time or another. Actually, the heated exchanges were also with people that aren't so much FROBLs as they are Bush-BotsTM. They perceive any criticism of the government's failures with regard to immigration law enforcement to be criticisms of Bush's 'guest worker' proposal.
The FROBLs, on the other hand range from naive to absurd in their posts. Many of them throw down the race card so fast that Jesse Jackson and Maxine Waters look to them for guidance. I must admit though, they generally don't resort to personal attacks, except maybe in a neurotically passive-aggressive way.
Here is the deal as I see it: The will to enforce immigration law has not existed at the federal level since the late 1970's. Reagan tried to deal with the problem in a humane and compassionate way, and it was a stunning failure. The amnesty itself, had it been backed up with rigorous enforcement of the laws against hiring illegal aliens, would have been a great answer. But it was NOT backed up with enforcement, and the number of illegal aliens has skyrocketed since that amnesty.
Furthermore, the feds have mandated education and healthcare (and numerous other direct or indirect benefits) for illegals, again a humane and compassionate approach, but uncontrollable with regard to scale and costs without the concordant enforcement of laws designed to manage illegal immigration.
This has placed the federal government in the position of having to direct massive redistribution of taxpayer money from communities that have (yet) to be severely impacted by illegal immigration, and channel those funds to areas that are losing hospital emergency rooms and that have crowded schools and prisons. In effect, the government has found a way to increase its size and scale through not enforcing certain laws and developing bureaucracies and policies to deal with the results.
The subject of 'immigration reform' has come to a head because of national security concerns post 9-11, and because of costs in the billions. The situation is out of control. But the situation is out of control because there has not been a will to enforce laws. How will passing more laws help a situation when the reason for the situation (and those laws) was lack of will to enforce law?
Legal immigrants, and all law-abiding citizens are in a very tough spot because of these prolonged failures to enforce the immigration laws. Our security is compromised by the lack of control on all borders and the rampant illegality and corruption on the southern border especially. The people smuggling and document forgery industries that run in parallel to the illegal immigration industry are the Achilles Heel of national security. And from a conservative perspective, how can anyone champion a situation where the federal government grows and gains power from its own failures?
There is much to be concerned about with regard to the illegal immigration situation. It impacts numerous other issues that may not at first seem to be related. People are passionate about this issue because it is a serious problem in a large number of ways.
I hope we will be mature enough as a community to tolerate the heated discussions that result from our trying to reason an appropriate way of handling this problem.
Whoa, this was almost my worst nightmare come true! To wake up one morning only to find that I no longer exist.......How does one deal with THAT?
All I know is that last Friday night, we were on a thread that got pulled and the next day he was banned.
ty meek, for your kind words; you certainly are one of my bestest friends in FR. And you certainly do not often fail with humor. Sometimes it's a real zinger...other times I just giggle....they're both good! : )
"I'd like to thank my wife, and especially my parents for raising me..."LOLOL!
Can't make up your mind? You are either for illegal immigration or against it. The forum owner appears to be against it. And did you see the current FR poll?
And as usual, YOU seem to be behind every runaway FR rig looking for thread Road Kill...
You're pathetic.
Correct me if I am wrong but didn't I read somewhere about a threat or might I say 'gang attack' on FR by the DU'ers was coming? Is this it? As if they matter.
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